Scattered rains in Argentina have helped shore up the country's 2010/11 soya outlook, despite earlier dryness caused by the La Nina weather phenomenon, a specialist in crop weather said on Monday. Argentina is the world's No 1 exporter of soyaoil and soyameal and its No 3 soyabean supplier.
"The south-east of Buenos Aires province has very good soil moisture reserves and has seen recent rainfall; it's still drizzling there," said German Heinzenknecht, a meteorologist at the private Applied Climate Consultancy. Buenos Aires province is the country's main soya-growing region.
The last two months of 2010 were unseasonably dry in Argentina, causing analysts to reduce their harvest forecasts and futures prices to rocket at the Chicago Board of Trade. But rains began falling again this January, revitalising crops and boosting crop forecasts. The Argentine government sees 2010/11 soya output at above 50 million tonnes, up from a prior unofficial estimate of 48 million tonnes, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Oscar Solis said on Friday.
Heinzenknecht added that relatively low temperatures over the last two weeks have also helped the soya crop. While the overall outlook is more positive than at the start of the year, crops in some specific areas are still suffering from dry conditions. "In Entre Rios province it's hardly rained for two weeks," Heinzenknecht said. "The ground has moisture reserves, but soya plants are absorbing a lot." The meteorologist, however, said rains are expected in Entre Rios on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Last week, Eduardo Sierra, a meteorologist at the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange, said 90 percent of areas planted with soya had sufficient soil moisture.